| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: handling the missive as if it were a sacred relic. "Can you ever
forgive me?"
"There is nothing to forgive," beamed Lady Agatha. "I am willing
to admit, now that you understand me, that the thing looked a bit
suspicious, on the face of it."
"You have suffered for the cause," said Miss Pringle. "I have
suffered for it, too!" And, with a certain shyness, she patted
Lady Agatha on the arm. But the next moment she said:
"But what IS in the box you brought here then, Lady Agatha? Two
boxes were shipped to Newark, addressed to me. Which one did you
get? What is really in the one you have been carrying around?
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: And in his blood that on the ground lay spill'd,
A purple flower sprung up, chequer'd with white; 1168
Resembling well his pale cheeks, and the blood
Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood.
She bows her head, the new-sprung flower to smell,
Comparing it to her Adonis' breath; 1172
And says within her bosom it shall dwell,
Since he himself is reft from her by death:
She drops the stalk, and in the breach appears
Green dropping sap, which she compares to tears.
'Poor flower,' quoth she, 'this was thy father's guise,
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: confirmare sese neque legatos missuros neque ullam condicionem pacis
accepturos.
Cum per eorum fines triduum iter fecisset, inveniebat ex captivis
Sabim flumen a castris suis non amplius milibus passuum X abesse; trans id
flumen omnes Nervios consedisse adventumque ibi Romanorum expectare una
cum Atrebatibus et Viromanduis, finitimis suis (nam his utrisque
persuaserant uti eandem belli fortunam experirentur); expectari etiam ab
iis Atuatucorum copias atque esse in itinere; mulieres quique per aetatem
ad pugnam inutiles viderentur in eum locum coniecisse quo propter paludes
exercitui aditus non esset.
His rebus cognitis, exploratores centurionesque praemittit qui locum
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: shocked me.
"I warn you, my lord, against this indulgency of evil feeling,"
said I. "I know not to which it is more perilous, the soul or the
reason; but you go the way to murder both."
"You cannot understand," said he. "You had never such mountains of
bitterness upon your heart."
"And if it were no more," I added, "you will surely goad the man to
some extremity."
"To the contrary; I am breaking his spirit," says my lord.
Every morning for hard upon a week my lord took his same place upon
the bench. It was a pleasant place, under the green acacias, with
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